X Close

Library News

Home

Newsletter for UCL Library Services

Menu

Farewell to…

By ucylr22, on 11 November 2016

Jes Cooban

This term we said goodbye to Jes after 23 years as Ancient World Librarian at UCL.

Jes“I started as a library trainee at the Institute of Classical Studies Library in 1982 and one of my first tasks was to clear the reading room of ash trays as smoking had just been banned! After library school in Aberystwyth, where I acquired a husband-to-be as well as a qualification, I worked at the University of London Library for 7 years and whilst there one of my duties was to replace the many microfiche catalogues in ring binders with the monthly updates as well as discovering the joys of MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloguing)…

After a brief break to produce a son & heir I started at UCL in May 1993 and entered a world of yellow book order forms and an ever increasing range of e-resources. So many things have changed – I still have to remind myself that we do allow eating & drinking nowadays but thankfully smoking is a no-no. I have truly enjoyed my years at UCL working in such a wonderful library in one of the best universities in the world alongside so many fabulous colleagues.”

Jes will be much missed but she leaves a legacy of orderliness and some great stories like this fascinating history of our Yates Collection.

Leave a Reply